General Music Chat

Hey guys,

Newbie here has a question regarding drum machines.

Since I'm having a ridicules time finding a competent drummer to practice/jam with, I've been contemplating the purchase of a decent drum machine. Problem is, I know absolutely nothing about them and was wondering if any of you kind folk might have some experience with these infernal machines.

Any brands or models in particular that you might recommend could be helpful, and what features should I be concerned about(?). I certainly don't need something overly complicated or expensive, just something decent to lay down with my guitar tracks.

Any suggestions?

Thanx

Hey,
My advice, especially if you come from a generation when these machines were simple and easy to operate, is to get an old keybaord workstation.The drum ROMS are REAL sounding, plus ya get many ole great analog sounds that are fully editable. Create your OWN drum maps and play the drums YOURSELF. Adust the "feel" Timbre, Pan, Pitch with ONE slider to suite without having to go into 10,000 banks, and screens.
Ive been using a 16 track workstation for 20 yrs and the piano , drums, B3, strings ,sax, and MANY other synth sounds are all Ive ever needed.
BC , before computers , I used it live for my one man show in Chicago.
Heres a link for an example.This is a 16 track sequencer , NOT 8..This guy doesnt know what he has.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ensoniq-SQ-1-Plus-S ... 7C294%3A50

Hey KIDD,

Thanks for the info. I had been looking into either a Boss or an Alesis drum machine (both less than $200), but I’m worried that the sound will be akin to Tupperware and maybe more of a pain to operate than I’d be willing to accept. I gather from your post that I’d probably be more pleased with your idea. Obviously, I want REAL sounding percussion and if I can also include many other synth sounds as well, that’d be a bonus.

I’m kind of behind on the learning curve with this stuff so I suppose I’ll have to do some research and start looking into a nice Synthesizer Keyboard, it does seem like it may be the best way to go for me.

Thanks again Man, I’ll try to let you know what I come up with.

Well, Ill tell ya, the reason Im still using the ole trusty SQ1 is because :
In 93 I bought my son an SQ1 becuase he was showing signs of becoming a composer by re creating Rick Wakemans "6 wives of Henry the 8th" on a 8 track yamaha synth.I thought with all these great sounds , he could really do it justice. THEN, of course , being a teenager at the time, he wanted to progress, SO, my Mom got him a Korg M1...I didnt like the drums on that synth OR and any of the keyboards that followed.So, I never progressed into anything more sophisticated..Didnt need to.
I suggested this for ya becuase #1 , its gonna be easy to operate and QUICK!!! (No setting patterns,having to operate in several modes)(it was created before the techys turned them into full blown computers that only THEY understand) #2, its got great "older" sounds and drum ROMs that sound REAL (analog). #3 , the price is gonna be right at 150-300 $ Ive seem them go for...Yeah , alot these "machines"are gonna sound like pie pans, and garbage can lids, card board boxes..NOT MY TRACKS..
All the drums ya hear on my page here and Myspace are the SQ1, along with everything else besides gtr. Some tunes ,Im even using her bass on.
Yeah, this is the equivilent to the "JITTER BUG cell phone..Easy to operate, for the more "season" citizens among us ..

Hey KIDD,

I just had a chance to listen to some of your tunes, really good btw, and the drums do sound pretty realistic to me. I particularly liked the sound of them on the “DIST EXP. FLANGED” track.

Thanks for taking the time to give me some feedback. I doubt I would’ve ever thought of getting some drumming in the way you’re suggesting, and I most likely would’ve just went ahead with a drum machine that may or may not actually be what I want. I’ll have to do some more figuring and see what happens. Thanks again.

Yeah , man its EASY..Just play C note for SD , F for BD, D thru B (in another octave for Toms, and a whole host of percussion RIGHT THERE in front of ya .Jesus, every GF Ive ever had with NO musical exp, is drummin in 5 minutes of me showing them what notes to hit.. Push Play/ rec just like on an old casstte deck, and your making music. My GAWD , just think... We used to have it THAT EASY. Yeah , I couldnt tear those chicks away from that thing to go do "Other Things" Thanks for the kind words regarding my tunes.
Yeah , some of those mixes , the drums were NOT seperate tracked .. in another words , the SQ1 was sharing polyphony voices with other instruments with in itself, which weakins them slightly.. The drums ARE by themselves in the mix you particularly liked. I do this to save time and having so many tracks in the computer.Anyway, yeah you can use 3-4 tracks to put down BD , SD , HT, LT , HH , RC. Create drum sequences THEN , put your FILLS in song mode where you'll have another 8trks. 8 in sequence mode , 8 in song mode.

Hope ya find what ya need soon.
John

def good advice above... but let me say...
a sampler is the best way to get real drum sounds w/o a kit... and there are many key stations that can do this... but I don't think that's what u want...
I own a zoom234 because despite having several keyboards AND a sampler... the pad interface is far superior to the keyboard in terms of writing a track that actually sounds like what a drummer might be able to play, and getting the snare and bd flutter effect.

That said, I've owned an alesis, and two bosses before deciding that I liked the layout of the zoom best. I play most of my drum rifs in real time with four fingers and it really helps me sound less like a computer.

on the downside the boss has the best quantization, and the zoom construction is a hair cheap. the alesis did the job but is the least like-able sound. The stock boss sounds are probably the best in that range. my one dislike of the boss was the pad layout...
the zoom is laid out the best IMO.


.

She doesn't know it yet, but it sounds like my wife is going to make an excellent drummer!

Thanks for all the good info John.

Hey mistermikev,

I kind of thought Alesis might not have the sound quality of a Boss (Roland) product, but I have yet to look into anything from Zoom.

Would you say that those units are fairly simple to master as well?
Keep in mind, I’m sort of dumb with some of this stuff.

Thanx

PS-I checked your "Shizhouse Blues" tune and those drums sound plenty good to me, especially the cymbals. Cool tune.

Im tellin ya whether ya get a sampler or workstation, you'd better keep her away from it Yeah , when she sees how easy it is to start trackin at 16 bit polyphony with NO stupid interfaces , sound cards, routing through a maze of I/O's , she'll NOT give it back to ya. Jesus boys , my gawd its unreal what we've done to complicate this stuff. I suffer EVERYDAY becuase the puter. Ill not see 60.

The zoom is fairly simple to operate... IMHO much simpler than sequencing on a korg triton or the like... but then it can't do as much either.

The "Micro Zoom MRT-3B" is $99.
It has a plastic shell, so don't step on it . . .
It has 396 built-in ryhthms, tempos from ridiculously slow to ridiculously fast (default is 120 bps)
It sounds real, it is easy to use, and it is programable.
It runs on batteries or ac adapter.
It has a foot switch input, and a choice of mono or stereo outputs.
You can use it for live peformance, for recording on your computer, or just as a super-duper metronome.
.
For $100, you can't go wrong.

Hey guys,

Newbie here has a question regarding drum machines.

Since I'm having a ridicules time finding a competent drummer to practice/jam with, I've been contemplating the purchase of a decent drum machine. Problem is, I know absolutely nothing about them and was wondering if any of you kind folk might have some experience with these infernal machines.

Any brands or models in particular that you might recommend could be helpful, and what features should I be concerned about(?). I certainly don't need something overly complicated or expensive, just something decent to lay down with my guitar tracks.

Any suggestions?

Thanx

contact me re: the electronic drums

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A good friend of mine has computer program drum effects that he can trigger himself or with midi and its ok but he still sends me his songs to lay down tracks for him because you just cant beat the real thing(sound)
I went from a 22-piece Pearl kit to a 12-piece Roland kit so i can record and make just about any sound, style i want and its much more quite